Yarrow

Value to bees

Nectar

Moderate

Pollen

High

As a honey crop

Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus

Which bees, and why

The visitor list is dominated by small solitary bees, hoverflies, soldier beetles and parasitic wasps rather than by charismatic bumblebees — which is precisely why it belongs in a serious pollinator planting. A garden that only serves bumblebees is serving a fraction of its insects.

Completely open florets massed on a flat platform. The most accessible flower architecture there is, alongside the umbellifers.

Worth knowing

Moderate nectar and good pollen, and its real distinction is who can reach it — yarrow serves the very small and short-tongued insects that deep-flowered garden plants shut out entirely.

Flowering

In flower

June to October (northern hemisphere)

A very long season, extended further by deadheading. It is still flowering when most meadow plants have finished.

When nectar flows

Modest nectar per floret and a great many florets, all completely exposed. Availability rather than volume is the point.

Year-to-year variation

Extremely dependable, in almost any conditions. Not a honey crop.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun, any drained soil, and it thrives on poor dry ground where little else will.

Size

30-70 cm.

Native range

Europe, Asia and North America; naturalised worldwide.

Suits

Meadow or wildflower area, Small gardens, Large gardens, Containers and window boxes

• Prefer the plain white species or simple single-coloured garden forms; heavily bred cultivars are usually still accessible but some doubles are not.
• One of the best plants for a lawn left unmown, and it survives mowing when the time comes.
• Cut back after the first flush for a second one running into October.
• Spreads by rhizome. Welcome in a meadow, occasionally a nuisance in a tidy border.

What it looks like

A spreading perennial with finely divided feathery aromatic leaves and dense flat corymbs of tiny white — or, in garden forms, yellow, pink or red — composite flowers.